And the next one will be...

Taken on Easter (20 weeks, the halfway point!)

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

This year I'm celebrating with my one little boy.

My silly, sweet, sensitive, dirty, energetic, crazy little boy.

But next Mother's Day I'll be celebrating with…... 

TWO LITTLE BOYS!

Peanut with baby Charlie

As I suspected after watching every ultrasound like a hawk, we're having another little boy.
I knew I saw something there!

So I'm going to be the mom of TWO BOYS,
I can hardly believe it!

The jump from one to two boys seems so hard core.

Double the dirt, double the fun?

Is that how the saying goes?

Meanwhile, I've given up my stash of girls clothes and girls names and girl plans (sigh),
and I'm getting really excited.  I can't wait to see if the two boys look alike or totally different.

  B is over the moon.  He would have been very happy to have a girl but I do recall him starting to talk about having 2 boys before we even had Peanut.

And no, we are not going to be trying for a girl next… are you crazy?
You know we'll end up with 3 boys!
This is it.  2 is perfect and I'm sure we'll have our hands full.

Peanut has been practicing his big brother skills on Boots the dog and Toby the turtle.

He likes to hum the Star Wars theme song to baby Boots to get him to go to sleep.

I need to get a video of that some time soon.

Every infant wants to fall asleep to the Star Wars theme song, right?

\

Soak it all in Peanut, you have about 17 more weeks to be the baby
before little brother comes in and cramps your style!

One Gorilla and a Peanut's view of mommy

I picked up this book at the library without even flipping through it.

I was in a rush and was drawn to the cover illustration.

You can't tell because of the lighting but the pictures are bright, clear and vivid.

The author/illustrator uses watercolors and the result is amazing.

The book is called One Gorilla: A Counting Book by Anthony Browne

It starts as a simple counting book.

Simple in that it's a counting book, but I seriously didn't know the names of half these animals.

Peanut can now identify Macaques in a line-up of monkeys.

And then we get here and I start wondering if lemurs are monkeys.

But then John Mellencamp pops up and declares us all one big primate family!

This is a self-portrait of Anthony Browne, the author but does it remind anyone else of Mellencamp?

So here is where the book gets really fun.

We look at all the different people and ask Peanut which ones look most like our family.

The green circles are who I thought Peanut would pick for mommy and daddy.  

The blue arrows are the pictures that Peanut picked.

We all agreed on Peanut as the little Asian boy in the bottom right corner.

I thought the Asian man with glasses would be B but the one Peanut picked made sense also.

But who do you think Peanut picked for me??

Take a good look.

I know there isn't really a good match for me but I assumed

either a woman with dark hair or an Asian girl.

I was so very wrong.

Every. single. time. Peanut picks this lady.

Is it the red lipstick?  I do love red lipstick, although lets admit that the blue eyeshadow is overkill.

B tries to make me feel better by saying it's the big smile.

What is it about this lady that resembles me…

or have I looked like a blonde crackhead all these years and never even known it?

Peanut's Book Journal

Back in September for some unknown reason 
I decided that I should be cataloging the books that Peanut is reading.
Or that I am reading to Peanut.  Or that we are reading together, depending on how you look at it.

I think it had something to do with discovering the Goodreads scanner on my phone.  I spent an hour that night scanning books in a frenzy.

And so I signed Peanut up for Goodreads and started rating and sorting.

Then I started separating them into bookshelves of holidays, favorite illustrations, etc.  Both for my own references and for other parents who ask me for recommendations.

I couldn't even begin to remember all the library books we've checked out over the last few years.  
I'm glad to keep track now so that I may find and revisit old favorites.
We randomly pick up a lot of books as we pass shelves at the library and sometimes we have a hard time remembering what they were months later.

We don't review books until we've had them a few weeks.  
Like food, I find that kids are sometimes uninterested the first time around.

As we go through and fill out reviews, I've separated them into both "Mommy" and "Peanut" reviews… because we obviously don't always have the same taste.  
Ratings are averaged between the 2 of us.

Sometimes we revisit old books and he really takes to them all of a sudden.
Some books are instant classics for the both of us.




Won't this be great to look back on when he gets older?
Or is it just me in my book nerdiness?

So if you want to keep up with our book reviews
 you can find us on Goodreads HERE!

I'd love suggestions for books to read!

We are always looking for something new and I love hearing what your family favorites are.

True Story

Exactly.

Peanut's Promotion

We're finally here!

It's been 2 years and several pregnancies but the 3rd time's a charm!

I'll be 13 weeks on Sunday and everything is looking perfect!
We are very excited!

I'll tell you all about it as soon as I stop throwing up.  ;)

Schoola!

I've gotten involved with this awesome program called Schoola and I want to spread the word about it!

It's a super easy way for schools to raise much needed funds with minimal effort from the schools.

Budget cuts are killing off a lot of educational programs (I'm preaching to the choir, I know)

so former teacher and principal Stacey Boyd (this lady is awesome) started thinking of ways to raise money for her daughter's school.

We're doing it all over the country, setting up school-wide drives or sending Schoola bags to individuals so they can donate for a school.

If you do a school drive, you pick a week when you want the clothes collected. 

I send you a personalized flyer letting the parents know about the clothing drive.
You get the word out (email the flyer or drop the flyers in the kid's folders)

The families get some spring cleaning done to clear out those closets. 

We have Fed Ex pick up the clothes, we photograph them and list them on our super pretty website Schoola and we send you money when the items sell.

Done.

Each school gets their own web page so you can track how awesome you are doing, spread the word to others (they can also donate clothes or they can buy clothes for cheap) and start planning what to do with much needed funds.  

No packets of things to sell to your family and neighbors.

Yes of course I need more candy.  And wrapping paper.  And nuts.  And jewelry.  And cookie dough.  

No forms to fill out or deliveries of goods to be made to all those neighbors and friends.

No volunteer hours to sign up for. 

Yes, yes, everyone is busy, I know this. I feel for anyone trying to drum up volunteers for events.

I.  feel.  your.  pain. 

No money spent.  (Amen.)

AND if you feel so inclined you can buy kids clothes through the site for super cheap 

while support your school or someone else's.

We are advertising nationally so people from across the country are buying off the site.

I don't have a girl but I just pulled this screen shot off the site and I seriously want that red Old Navy jacket and the pink Lands End one.  NEED.
You can search by size, style, brand, etc.

Well, as you can see I'm pretty excited about this!

If you are interested, let's chat!

Yay Schoola!

Let daddy take a nap

Daddy is really tired.

Don't wake him up, let's let him sleep for a little bit, OK?

"OK, mommy. "

Parenting means learning to sleep while your kid climbs all over you.

Pics taken Sept 2013